Newswise — (Great Neck, NY) The Board of Directors of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression), a leading international nonprofit for the funding of mental health research, has named Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., Acting President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation. Dr. Borenstein, Chief Medical Officer of the Foundation, brings more than two decades of leadership experience in mental health to the position. He is a board-certified psychiatrist, Editor in Chief of the American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric News and host of the award-winning public television show Healthy Minds, which launched a new season this week throughout the U.S. He is former CEO/Medical Director of Holliswood Hospital, where he served from 1996 to 2012.

“We are delighted to appoint Dr. Borenstein as Acting President and CEO of the Foundation,” says Steve Lieber, Chairman of the Board. “Jeff brings strong nonprofit leadership skills to carry forward our mission of accelerating funding to identify the causes, improve treatments and develop prevention strategies for mental illness. As a clinical psychiatrist, he brings a personal and passionate determination to improve the lives of those suffering. We are confident he will be a great champion for the cause and will successfully lead the Foundation to its next stage of development.”

Commenting on the new appointment, Herbert Pardes, M.D., Foundation Scientific Council President and Executive Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees, NY–Presbyterian Hospital notes, “As our country faces declining federal and university funding for brain and behavior research and increasing incidence of mental illness, the field has never needed the Foundation’s NARSAD Grants more than it does now. We receive more than a thousand applications for NARSAD Grants each year but are only able to fund a fraction of them. With Jeff at the helm, we are confident that our ambitious objectives to award significantly more grants will become a reality.”

“I am honored to serve the Foundation and advance its mission of funding research to find improved treatments and cures for mental illnesses. At this time, when funding for research is becoming more scarce, the mission of the Foundation is even more crucial. My goal is to build on the groundwork of the Foundation’s 25 year history to fund research that can accelerate discovery and deliver hope—hope for healthy, productive and happy lives,” says Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein.

Dr. Borenstein is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and chair of the Section on Psychiatry at the Academy. He is a graduate of Harvard University and New York University School of Medicine.

####The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation has been awarding NARSAD Grants for 25 years. The Foundation has invested close to $300 million in NARSAD Grants to more than 3,300 scientists worldwide since 1987, leading to thousands of scientific achievements to improve the lives of those with mental illness.